Segall Named Ashe Professor

Eric Segall has been named Kathy and Lawrence Ashe Professor of Law after recent approval by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

“This is a fitting testament to Eric’s lifelong dedication as a teacher and scholar and his nationally acclaimed body of work on the role of the Supreme Court in our society,” says Steven J. Kaminshine, dean and professor of law. “I know Eric is particularly proud to hold a professorship endowed by Kathy and Lawrence Ashe, a sentiment shared by all of us at the College of Law.

“Quite simply, it’s an honor to receive such generous support from Kathy and Lawrence, and we greatly appreciate their decision to help us support and retain outstanding faculty,” Kaminshine says.

Kathy and Lawrence Ashe created the endowed professorship in 2009 and fulfilled their pledge recently. Kathy Ashe served as a Georgia legislator for more than 21 years, while Lawrence Ashe is an acclaimed employment and civil rights attorney.

“Kathy and I are pleased and privileged to be able to make this gift to Georgia State Law,” says Lawrence Ashe, senior counsel with Parker Hudson Rainer & Dobbs LLP. “We are especially gratified by the selection of Eric for this professorship. He is an outstanding legal scholar and deservedly exceptionally popular professor. Equally, he is an outstanding person.”

Segall joined Georgia State Law in 1991 after clerkships with Charles Moye Jr., chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, and Albert J. Henderson, judge for the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. He also worked for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Both Lawrence and Kathy Ashe have contributed in many important ways to the city of Atlanta,” says Segall. “It is a great honor to have their names associated with my career. I am extremely proud, flattered and humbled to hold the Ashe professorship.”

Author of “Supreme Myths: Why the Supreme Court is not a Court and its Justices are not Judges,” Segall’s articles have appeared in many publications, including the Stanford Law Review, the UCLA Law Review and others. He is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and the Los Angeles Times and appears frequently on StandUp! with Pete Dominick on XM Radio to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Ashe family’s connections to Georgia State Law run deep. Kathy Ashe served on the College of Law’s Board of Visitors, and she did post-graduate studies at the College of Education in the early 1970s. Lawrence Ashe is a longstanding master of Georgia State Law’s Bleckley Inn of Court executive committee. Their son, Robert L. “Robbie” Ashe III (J.D. ’09), and his wife, Blake Eno Ashe (J.D. ’07) are both honors graduates with Robbie Ashe finishing first in his class.

Eno Ashe served as the editor in chief of the Georgia State University Law Review and won the Georgia Intrastate Moot Court competition. She is at home with children, Oscar and Julia. Robbie Ashe was the law review’s legislative editor and is an associate with Bondurant Mixson & Elmore LLP. He serves as a barrister and on the executive board of the Georgia State Law Bleckley Inn of Court.

“Our ties are close with the college,” Lawrence Ashe says. “Both our son and daughter-in-law graduated and benefitted from the excellence of its education.”